AMD's Headquarters Tour: Unreleased Prototypes and Labs

Gamers Nexus recently had the opportunity to visit AMD's headquarters in Austin, Texas. In a previous video, the company's employees discussed the history of Zen CPUs and showcased historical prototypes, including the unreleased Ryzen 9 5950X3D and 5900X3D models. The YouTube channel promised to share more footage of the AMD HQ tour over the next few weeks. The latest upload features host Steve Burke talking to representatives from various internal labs.

One interesting detail revealed during the tour was an old heat spreader concept for Zen 4 processors. The thermal laboratory at Team Red evaluated whether integrating a concealed vapor chamber would provide better cooling performance compared to traditional metal solutions. Their tests showed that the additional cost required for a vapor chamber was not justified by the resulting 1°C temperature difference when compared to a traditional metal design IHS. AMD confirmed that the concept was not further developed due to prototype chips generating excessive heat under continuous long-term workload conditions.

The tour of AMD's Austin Headquarters showcases labs from different areas of the campus, offering a unique glimpse into the tools used by this hundred-billion dollar chip designer. Unreleased prototypes, such as vapor chamber heatspreaders, first-party direct die plates, and unnamed CPUs, are featured in the tour. Additionally, viewers can learn about the technology and tools used to test and design AMD's Ryzen (Zen) processors. The tour covers the Bring-Up Lab, the codename "red door" lab, a thermal engineering lab, the device failure analysis lab, and an IHS etching facility.